When old theories are challenged forcefully, the public discourse moves forward. Thanks to the efforts of this lobby of researchers about Netaji’s contribution, the common Indian people now believe that the day is not far when the truth about the iconic leader will get known to everybody. And once that happens, a lot of old beliefs will get shattered and new facts would come to fore.

"Why is the Government hiding the truth that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave India freedom?”

- Oft-repeated question in the Indian minds for the past 75 years.

NO MATTER the political idea that some elements may be trying to spread about how India got freedom, factually, this question -- Why is the Government hiding the truth that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose gave India freedom? -- has continued to haunt most Indians. Average Indian people have little to do with the political part of the controversy about freedom. Their basic interest is in their right to know the truth as it is. There are several angles to the mysteries that surround Netaji Subhas Bose’s life -- and death. But the most important is the man’s actual contribution to the cause of India’s freedom. That issue needs to be resolved decisively.

Those who have studied the world history around the World War II are quite conscious that the British found themselves terribly cornered as far India was concerned. Though they had registered a clear victory in the World War II -- thanks to a variety of reasons -- they felt compelled to cede control of India. What were the factors that led them to do so? This question needs to be studied in truthful detail rather than political propagandism.

The oft-repeated narrative made popular in the country by some elements is that India won Independence through non-violence. This argument is now being challenged by some people most vociferously, most vehemently. Though there may be a dispute about the statement actress Kangana Ranaut made -- that India’s so-called freedom was an alms from the British -- there are people who feel that what is described as “freedom” was actually a “transfer of power”. This lobby asserts that Government is hiding truth about Netaji because it wants to protect its own narrative of “non-violence”.

Some researchers afford the evidence of Sir Clement Attlee, who was Prime Minister of Britain towards the end of the World War II and who made the final decision to cede control of India. During his visit to India (Kolkata) in the mid-1950s, Mr. Attlee said to his host that the contribution of Mahatma Gandhi to the freedom to India was “minimal”. During the same conversation, Sir Attlee is also reported to have said that the British were overly concerned about their loss of control on the Armed Forces -- thanks mainly to Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army (plus the Government of Free India led by Netaji Bose). The INA had created serious faultlines in the British Indian Army and the alien rulers found it difficult to keep the soldiers’ loyalty intact. Also, the uprising by the sailors of the Indian Navy also created problems for the British. That made the British realise that despite their victory in the World War II, they could not hold India in their control, Sir Clement Attlee is reported to have said.

Those who have studied the events around those years also insist that as many as 26,000 soldiers of the Indian National Army led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose laid their lives fighting for freedom of India. Thus, the claim by the people in power post-1947 in India that freedom was won through non-violence is false and political in nature. The details of how Netaji Bose created a favourable international mood for India’s freedom from the British have already become integral parts of the collective information, memory and belief. If the world favoured India’s independence, crores of Indian people in India and abroad were committed to winning freedom led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

The accusation now doing the rounds in the country is that some political elements tried to hide the truth of Netaji’s contribution because they feared that he would corner all the credit for Independence. What a petty thought, this!

Thanks to the efforts of a few researchers, the nation now knows that a serious conspiracy shrouds the vanishing of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Countless verifiable accounts are available in public domain to claim that Netaji was never killed in an air crash and that the air crash did not take place at all in the first place. A strong body of evidence has emerged in public domain to believe that Netaji lived for many years -- partly in the Soviet Union and later in India incognito for a variety of reasons. There claims in public domain that the Government of India had the proof that Netaji was alive and some leaders of the Government were in touch with him through Intelligence officers -- either of India or of the erstwhile INA led by Netaji.

Various scholars and researchers have tried to answer a natural question as to why Netaji did not surface in free India if he were alive. While some of those theories appear plausible, some appear only superficial and unconvincing.

No matter the details, one thing is clear -- that most Indians now believe that big efforts were made by some political vested interests to hide truth about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose for various reasons. This work by a strong lobby of researchers has ensured that the common people have begun doubting the theory of non-violence as the tool that won India freedom.

This is no less a gain. For, when old theories are challenged forcefully, the public discourse moves forward. Thanks to the efforts of this lobby of researchers about Netaji’s contribution, the common Indian people now believe that the day is not far when the truth about the iconic leader will get known to everybody. And once that happens, a lot of old beliefs will get shattered and new facts would come to fore.

The idea is not to debunk any personality in comparison as such. The purpose is to bring to fore the truth the nation has every right to know. In the case of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, this purpose is all the more meaningful.